- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 230
The following was an excerpt from today's Vancouver Sun, my letter to the editor is below
HIPPOCRATIC OATH
Flowers has become friends with Dr. Michael Klein, a war resister who went to become head of Family Practice at Children's and Women's Hospitals in Vancouver.
Klein, 68, said that coming to Canada was the "central event" in his life and the lives of thousands of other young Americans, including his wife, Bonnie, who later became a prominent documentary filmmaker in Canada.
Klein is proud that he refused to join the U.S military as a physician. "As a physician, your primary responsibility was to return the soldier to combat. And that meant he was going to kill or be killed. I couldn't be part of that."
During a workshop break at the Our Way Home Reunion, Klein said many war resisters are ambivalent about their choice.
"Some people are at peace with their decision, but some are in great pain over what it cost them: But I'm very comfortable with the decision I made."
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=03878a3f-81d6-4e53-87ad-7ed8f2df63e3
My reply is as follows below
Sir,
Did Dr Klein think he was respecting the Hippocratic oath, or a hypocritical oath when he decided he could not serve his country as a military physician during the Vietnam war? As one of the leading physicians at one of our finest institutions he is clearly an outstanding technical physician. The good Dr has stated that he could not aid in returning soldiers to health so they could return to combat. His duty is to his fellow citizens, and captured enemy, to return them to health, that they may rejoin their people as productive citizen at conflicts end. What difference could his skills have made? How many empty sleeves would have arms, how many empty sockets would have eyes, how many filled wheel chairs would stand idle, had he chosen to aid his fellow citizens? How many widows wept, how many children raised fatherless that this great physician should take comfort in never having aided a soldier to return to health. He is comfortable with his choices he says, so did Herman Goering, and I don't doubt that neither of them can understand the cost of their comfort.
John T Mainer
Maple Ridge BC
And no, before anyone asks, I do not equate the actions of the good doctor with Herman Goering, simply that they share a similar disregard at the price of that other people must pay that they may be comfortable with their decisions.
If anyone would like to share their thoughts with the author or editor, their addresses are as follows:
Author dward@png.canwest.com
Editor sunletters@png.canwest.com
HIPPOCRATIC OATH
Flowers has become friends with Dr. Michael Klein, a war resister who went to become head of Family Practice at Children's and Women's Hospitals in Vancouver.
Klein, 68, said that coming to Canada was the "central event" in his life and the lives of thousands of other young Americans, including his wife, Bonnie, who later became a prominent documentary filmmaker in Canada.
Klein is proud that he refused to join the U.S military as a physician. "As a physician, your primary responsibility was to return the soldier to combat. And that meant he was going to kill or be killed. I couldn't be part of that."
During a workshop break at the Our Way Home Reunion, Klein said many war resisters are ambivalent about their choice.
"Some people are at peace with their decision, but some are in great pain over what it cost them: But I'm very comfortable with the decision I made."
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=03878a3f-81d6-4e53-87ad-7ed8f2df63e3
My reply is as follows below
Sir,
Did Dr Klein think he was respecting the Hippocratic oath, or a hypocritical oath when he decided he could not serve his country as a military physician during the Vietnam war? As one of the leading physicians at one of our finest institutions he is clearly an outstanding technical physician. The good Dr has stated that he could not aid in returning soldiers to health so they could return to combat. His duty is to his fellow citizens, and captured enemy, to return them to health, that they may rejoin their people as productive citizen at conflicts end. What difference could his skills have made? How many empty sleeves would have arms, how many empty sockets would have eyes, how many filled wheel chairs would stand idle, had he chosen to aid his fellow citizens? How many widows wept, how many children raised fatherless that this great physician should take comfort in never having aided a soldier to return to health. He is comfortable with his choices he says, so did Herman Goering, and I don't doubt that neither of them can understand the cost of their comfort.
John T Mainer
Maple Ridge BC
And no, before anyone asks, I do not equate the actions of the good doctor with Herman Goering, simply that they share a similar disregard at the price of that other people must pay that they may be comfortable with their decisions.
If anyone would like to share their thoughts with the author or editor, their addresses are as follows:
Author dward@png.canwest.com
Editor sunletters@png.canwest.com